Gen. Mike Minihan needed people to listen.
In 2021, fresh off his previous role as deputy commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Minihan knew that a massive overhaul of the world order was potentially underway. Air Mobility Command, his new post, needed to prepare to beat China.
The 6-foot-5 four-star burst onto the national scene in September 2022 with a fiery speech he hoped would inspire mobility airmen to see themselves as active players in America’s military legacy despite not flying flashy fighter jets.
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“When you can kill your enemy, every part of your life is better. Your food tastes better; your marriage is stronger,” he roared to thousands of airmen and other attendees at the Air and Space Forces Association’s annual conference outside Washington.
“Why is the mobility guy talking about lethality?” he asked. “Everybody’s role is critical, but Air Mobility Command is the maneuver for the joint force. If we don’t have our act together, nobody wins. Nobody’s lethal.”
He again grabbed the global spotlight with an early 2023 memo that urged airmen to be “unrepentantly lethal” in preparation for a war with China he believed could come in 2025. That timeline is comparable to the predictions of other top brass, including former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, who have cited U.S. intelligence in…
